Rhenny
Adventurer
Started Running Reclaiming Blingdenstone although it is the 3rd time we've played using the 2nd playtest package rules/characters.
PCs (all 1st level)
Human Fighter Protector/Jack of all Trades
Human Wizard Sage/Magic User
Human Cleric of Pelor Priest/Healer
Halfling Rogue/Thief + 3 chosen skills
For this playtest session (2 hours) I gave the monsters +2 to hit like I did last time. We really like the feel of that although it didn’t make a difference for fighting Ogremoch’s Bane.
Here’s what happened
The party walked into the Phatasmal Glamours area of the adventure and spoke with Henkala. Lots of roleplaying. Then they set off to find the Guild of Armorers and Weaponsmiths. On the way, they walked through the Ruby in the Rough area and decided to go into the temple. The cleric led the way and used his religious and diplomatic skills to speak with the Burrow Warden. They told him they’d find the crown. Still interested in the Ogremoch problem, the group continued to the Guild. When they got there, the Wizard was able to figure out what the mysterious vanishing creature was (the Pech). The group decided to coax it out and spoke with it. While they were speaking with it (finding out more about Ogremoch’s Bane) the little fellow became startled. He looked behind himself and then melded right into a nearby stone wall. The party braced themselves and sure enough, a party of 4 orcs attacked from the tunnels to the north.
The orc battle was quick. None of the PCs used any spells other than cantrips, and the fighter was able to use his parry to ward off damage from one blow. (3 orcs attacked immediately. 1 stayed back and waited for 1 round). After they took care of the orcs, the rogue turned over their bodies and found some silver, but little else. Then they continued their discussion with the Pech. The Pech told them that the Pechs could help defeat Orgremoch, but they needed assurance from the Deep Gnomes that the Deep Gnomes would not over build and would co-exist with the Pechs. The party said they would speak with Henkala, and they trudged back to the Phantasmal Glamours. More roleplaying. Henkala asked the party to tell the Pechs that she could vouch for the Deep Gnomes, and she also lent the fighter a +1 battleaxe to use against Ogremoch’s Bane. (The hand axe wasn’t manly enough). The party was able to get the Pechs to come with them to confront the Bane.
At first, the party tried to parlay with the Bane. The Bane tried to get them to help him destroy the Boon, but the party would hear none of that. They signaled the Pech’s to put up the protective circle, and they readied for battle. The party outscored Ogremoch’s Bane in initiative (everyone beat the whirling rock and dust creature). They let lose their barrage of spells (burning hands, searing light), the rogue hid (and prepared to sneak attack with a bottle of holy water – he learned that holy weapons might hurt the Bane, so he asked the Cleric for 3 bottles). The fighter with magical axe, stepped out of the circle to attack, and was batted by flying debris. He put up his shield to parry saving himself 6 out of 8 points of damage. I let the Bane attack the shield. I had decided that if he rolled an 18, 19 or 20, the Pechs would stumble and he would be able to deal 1d4+1 damage to everyone inside the shield. Lo and behold, he rolled a 19 on his first attack. The Wizard was bloodied, the rogue and cleric were noticeably wounded. The fighter took the damage and got angry. To make a long story short, the fight went on for 6 rounds. The Bane never rolled another 18, 19 or 20. He did however injure the fighter, who needed the Cleric to use Divine Channel healing on him. In the end, both spellcasters used all of their spell slots, and after the fight, the rogue and the wizard needed to use their HD of healing. They went back to Henkala, and she gave them 3 healing potions, and the gem, and gifted the battleaxe to the fighter. After this, they all leveled up to 2nd level.
Comments
The players really liked the game. It was roleplaying heavy. We did have 1 minor combat and 1 major combat in 2 hours so there was a nice mix.
The characters felt good, and now the players are getting used to them. One thing we noticed is that the Wizard decided to prepare 3x burning hands. That spell may be more desirable (although with his new level, he learned charm person, cause fear and ray of enfeeblement…so maybe now he’ll diversify).
The only negative I have as DM is about the way the adventure was organized. It was difficult to find the “read aloud” text. Often I found that in the descriptions that were not marked for reading aloud, there were some nice pieces of description or information that the PCs could use, and in the read aloud there wasn’t as much as I needed. Usually, I run my own homebrew games so I don’t need to rely on the text, but since I wanted to run the adventure using the descriptive text, I had a more difficult time with it. Also, since the initial meetings and place descriptions come first, then each adventure continues later in the packet, I often had to jump back and forth…making my head spin a bit. Also, as you can see from my game recap above, I decided to give Ogremoch’s Bane a chance to get through the Pech’s shield temporarily by making an attack roll each round. I think that really made the encounter much more frightening for the players.
The wizard player is really looking forward to Wizard Traditions. Next round we will run 2nd level and 3rd level to see how it feels. Hopefully we’ll get through all 5 levels by the time the next package is released.
PCs (all 1st level)
Human Fighter Protector/Jack of all Trades
Human Wizard Sage/Magic User
Human Cleric of Pelor Priest/Healer
Halfling Rogue/Thief + 3 chosen skills
For this playtest session (2 hours) I gave the monsters +2 to hit like I did last time. We really like the feel of that although it didn’t make a difference for fighting Ogremoch’s Bane.
Here’s what happened
The party walked into the Phatasmal Glamours area of the adventure and spoke with Henkala. Lots of roleplaying. Then they set off to find the Guild of Armorers and Weaponsmiths. On the way, they walked through the Ruby in the Rough area and decided to go into the temple. The cleric led the way and used his religious and diplomatic skills to speak with the Burrow Warden. They told him they’d find the crown. Still interested in the Ogremoch problem, the group continued to the Guild. When they got there, the Wizard was able to figure out what the mysterious vanishing creature was (the Pech). The group decided to coax it out and spoke with it. While they were speaking with it (finding out more about Ogremoch’s Bane) the little fellow became startled. He looked behind himself and then melded right into a nearby stone wall. The party braced themselves and sure enough, a party of 4 orcs attacked from the tunnels to the north.
The orc battle was quick. None of the PCs used any spells other than cantrips, and the fighter was able to use his parry to ward off damage from one blow. (3 orcs attacked immediately. 1 stayed back and waited for 1 round). After they took care of the orcs, the rogue turned over their bodies and found some silver, but little else. Then they continued their discussion with the Pech. The Pech told them that the Pechs could help defeat Orgremoch, but they needed assurance from the Deep Gnomes that the Deep Gnomes would not over build and would co-exist with the Pechs. The party said they would speak with Henkala, and they trudged back to the Phantasmal Glamours. More roleplaying. Henkala asked the party to tell the Pechs that she could vouch for the Deep Gnomes, and she also lent the fighter a +1 battleaxe to use against Ogremoch’s Bane. (The hand axe wasn’t manly enough). The party was able to get the Pechs to come with them to confront the Bane.
At first, the party tried to parlay with the Bane. The Bane tried to get them to help him destroy the Boon, but the party would hear none of that. They signaled the Pech’s to put up the protective circle, and they readied for battle. The party outscored Ogremoch’s Bane in initiative (everyone beat the whirling rock and dust creature). They let lose their barrage of spells (burning hands, searing light), the rogue hid (and prepared to sneak attack with a bottle of holy water – he learned that holy weapons might hurt the Bane, so he asked the Cleric for 3 bottles). The fighter with magical axe, stepped out of the circle to attack, and was batted by flying debris. He put up his shield to parry saving himself 6 out of 8 points of damage. I let the Bane attack the shield. I had decided that if he rolled an 18, 19 or 20, the Pechs would stumble and he would be able to deal 1d4+1 damage to everyone inside the shield. Lo and behold, he rolled a 19 on his first attack. The Wizard was bloodied, the rogue and cleric were noticeably wounded. The fighter took the damage and got angry. To make a long story short, the fight went on for 6 rounds. The Bane never rolled another 18, 19 or 20. He did however injure the fighter, who needed the Cleric to use Divine Channel healing on him. In the end, both spellcasters used all of their spell slots, and after the fight, the rogue and the wizard needed to use their HD of healing. They went back to Henkala, and she gave them 3 healing potions, and the gem, and gifted the battleaxe to the fighter. After this, they all leveled up to 2nd level.
Comments
The players really liked the game. It was roleplaying heavy. We did have 1 minor combat and 1 major combat in 2 hours so there was a nice mix.
The characters felt good, and now the players are getting used to them. One thing we noticed is that the Wizard decided to prepare 3x burning hands. That spell may be more desirable (although with his new level, he learned charm person, cause fear and ray of enfeeblement…so maybe now he’ll diversify).
The only negative I have as DM is about the way the adventure was organized. It was difficult to find the “read aloud” text. Often I found that in the descriptions that were not marked for reading aloud, there were some nice pieces of description or information that the PCs could use, and in the read aloud there wasn’t as much as I needed. Usually, I run my own homebrew games so I don’t need to rely on the text, but since I wanted to run the adventure using the descriptive text, I had a more difficult time with it. Also, since the initial meetings and place descriptions come first, then each adventure continues later in the packet, I often had to jump back and forth…making my head spin a bit. Also, as you can see from my game recap above, I decided to give Ogremoch’s Bane a chance to get through the Pech’s shield temporarily by making an attack roll each round. I think that really made the encounter much more frightening for the players.
The wizard player is really looking forward to Wizard Traditions. Next round we will run 2nd level and 3rd level to see how it feels. Hopefully we’ll get through all 5 levels by the time the next package is released.
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